Playful blue-white dolphins

Don’t get misled by what is typical: when this morning we found a group of socializing dolphins, the first thought was “common dolphins, here they are again!” but with a better look, the behaviour was different. They were staying mostly underwater and surfacing very fast. Some of them were performing sideway headslaps at very very low angle and it was difficult to see the coloration, but when eventually started to be more active above the sea surface, we could confirm they were striped dolphins instead.

striped dolphins, which sometimes are called blue-white dolphins, are very acrobatic and can gather in huge schools of thousands individuals. The group was playful and quite active, but it always kept distance from the boat, a common behaviour we observe here in the Azores, contrary to other areas where they approach moving vessels.

The day was not over and we spent sometime in the company of two fin whales, which gifted us with a last deep dive in front of our boat. Today there were also quite a lot of tiny Portuguese Man O’ War, so while waiting the fin whales to show up after their foraging bouts, we could enjoy these beautiful stingy creatures.

At last, though, the “typical” showed up and we were pleased by the friendly presence of a large group of common dolphins 😀